smart speakers

Amazon's ecosystem (Echo-system?) never stops growing. Its newest player has arrived: the Echo Pop, a $40 smart speaker with a half-circle body instead of the fully rounded forms of Amazon's other Echo speakers.I've been enjoying the Echo…

Earlier this year, Amazon announced that Amazon Sidewalk—a program that uses Ring cameras and Echo devices to transmit wireless signals that other smart home devices can use—would open to all hardware developers. Anyone who wants to make a…

With a lovely mix of music, stories, and sounds, all available in eight languages, this speaker successfully combines fun and education. It is durable, has its own handle, and is simple enough for toddlers to operate. Timio is for kids aged…

Apple cares a lot about music. Steve Jobs loved it so much that he invented the iPod and iTunes to let us bring all of it everywhere, and personally owned multi-thousand-dollar Swedish speakers in his sparsely-decorated living room. To this…

Connects to Google Assistant or AlexaThe pint-sized Sonos Roam (9/10, WIRED Recommends) has become our new favorite portable speaker. I (Parker) have taken it on road trips, to outdoor weddings, and in the basket of my bike. The…

On Thursday, the US International Trade Commission, which rules on import laws, determined that Alphabet-owned Google infringed on audio technology patents held by smart speaker company Sonos, a significant win for Sonos in a two-year long…

Google is working on a feature for its digital voice assistant that will allow users to skip saying ‘Hey Google’. This essentially means that a user will no longer have to add ‘Hey Google’ before giving voice commands to the Google…

Connects to Amazon AlexaIf you aren’t in it for the music, the Amazon Echo Dot With Clock (4th Gen) and Google's Nest Mini (7/10, WIRED Recommends) will give you most of the perks of owning a smart speaker, and you can use them to smarten…

Alexa. Alexa. Alexa. It can be tiring calling on Amazon's virtual assistant for every command to turn on a variety of smart home devices in succession. But did you know you can set up Alexa routines and create a single voice command that…